Suspended security assistance to Pak for failure to address militant safe havens: US

The Trump administration has suspended security assistance to Pakistan because it failed to address the problem of militant safe havens inside its territory, the White House has said.

"The (Trump) Administration has been clear to Pakistani leaders that it expects them to constructively address the problem of militant safe havens in Pakistan," an official from the National Security Council, the White House, told PTI.

"We remain hopeful that Pakistan will realize it is in its own interest to cooperate with the US strategy in Afghanistan," said the official responding to Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan accusing President Donald Trump of false assertion in his country's fight against terror.

First in an interview to Fox News on Sunday and then in two tweets on Monday, Trump had accused Pakistan of not doing "a damn thing" for the United States.

He alleged that Pakistan knew that Osama bin Laden, the al Qaida leader, was living in a mansion on the outskirts of its garrison city of Abbottabad and all the aid being given to Pakistan, which is $1.3 billion per annum, was a waste.

As a result, Trump defended his decision to cut all security assistance to Pakistan.

The Pakistani prime minister responded with a tweet saying that his country had suffered enough by fighting terrorism on behalf of the United States.

"Now we will do what is best for our people & our interests," the cricketer-turned-politician said on Twitter.

Trump's latest interview and tweets, which were a statement of fact being said and felt by top US officials for long, has furthered deteriorated US-Pak relationship.

Senator Rand Paul, who has for the last several years, sought to cut all assistance to Pakistan, supported Trump's decision.

Paul has urged Trump to grant political asylum and refugee status to Asia Bibi.

"Until Asia Bibi is freed, Pakistan should not receive a penny of US Aid! Not one penny should go to any nation that persecutes or kills Christians!" Paul wrote in an op-ed in Breitbart News.

"During my time in Congress, I have introduced legislation to directly go after Pakistan's foreign aid and turn up the pressure on them to release Asia Bibi and stop persecuting religious minorities," he said.

In fact, over the past few years, a consensus seems to have emerged in the US Congress, think-tank and the administration that Pakistan has not been doing enough in the fight against terrorism and that it is playing a double game.

"Because they enjoy safe haven in Pakistan. Next question," Jeff M Smith of The Heritage Foundation think-tank said responding to a tweet from Imran Khan in which he said that "Instead of making Pakistan a scapegoat for their failures, the US should do a serious assessment of why, despite 140000 NATO troops plus 250,000 Afghan troops & reportedly $1 trillion spent on war in Afghanistan, the Taliban today are stronger than before."

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'The (Trump) Administration has been clear to Pakistani leaders that it expects them to constructively address the problem of militant safe havens in Pakistan,' an official from the National Security Council, the White House, told PTI.